St James's Place finds a wealth of support

Wednesday 22 February 2012 11:19 BST

Markets have been unusually rocky and a fear of financial Armageddon has left many investors shoving money under the mattress.

But St James's Place is still finding demand for its wealth management services growing. It reckons there are more than 7 million Britons in the "mass affluent" category. Broadly speaking, that's folk with at least £50,000 to invest, which leads SJP to believe it can keep expanding apace. If the clients are doing half as well as the company, they'll be pleased.

In the year to December profits are up 30% to £110 million. That allows a 33% leap in the full dividend for the second year running to 8p. Next year's should go up by a similar amount, says the confident chief executive David Bellamy.

"Market conditions were far from helpful," he said. "Last year from about August onwards people were getting very nervous about investing in anything. Markets had such volatility it just spooked people."

They are a bit more relaxed of late, the sharp rise in the footsie helping sentiment. St James's funds under management are up 6% to £28.5 billion.

Joining the board is Baroness Wheatcroft, the former Times business editor. She can expect fees of around £50,000 a year for her input.

One outstanding issue for the company remains the 60% stake in SJP owned by Lloyds Banking Group. Sometimes it seems Lloyds wants to ditch this holding, other times that it might keep it long term.

If he were a betting man, would he punt on this issue being resolved soon? "I'm not a betting man," blocks Bellamy.